Because Brave New World is a novel of ideas, the characters and plot are secondary, even simplistic. Though he was already a best-selling author, Huxley achieved international acclaim with this now-classic novel. In it, the author questions the values of 1931 London, using satire and irony to portray a futuristic world in which many of the contemporary trends in British and American society have been taken to extremes. Written in 1931 and published the following year, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a dystopian-or antiutopian-novel. We still search for meaning in our lives, some of us harder than others.Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 Introduction Author Biography Plot Summary Characters Themes Style Historical Context Critical Overview Criticism Sources For Further Study Introduction But we are human after all, and we have not changed since Huxley wrote, or since Shakespeare wrote the plays that shaped John’s thinking. The endless distractions we are drawn toward, especially social media and binge-watching, the endless endless consumerism, the attempted numbing of thought and feeling with drugs and distractions and purchases. When I consider society today, some things in Huxley’s dystopia are familiar. Socialist revolutionary, Karl Marx said “Religion is the opium of the people” and soma, isĬhristianity without tears-that’s what soma is. Soma, a drug eaten like lollies is one of the ways the World State controls its people. Happiness is never grand.” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. As humans, we don’t understand the light without its companion the dark. The society engineered as the brave new world is intent on creating happy people and stability, but it is meaningless. They’re well off they’re safe they’re never ill they’re not afraid of death they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave.” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World People are happy they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. “You can’t make tragedies without social instability. The World State considers truth a great destabiliser. John has grown up without the propaganda or conditioning of the World State and he is more interested in truth than happiness. The introduction of Linda and John serves to provide a contrast between the ‘primitive’ and ‘brave new world’ and what the populace has given up to be a stable society. Nevertheless, the two set off on holiday to the Savage Reservation where primitives still have actual mothers and fathers (disgusting!) and there they find Linda, a Beta who got separated from her holiday group and has been living on the Reservation with her son John. “Everyone belongs to everyone else.” Being infatuated with anyone is frowned upon and perhaps these two will hit it off, but no, Lenina can’t understand why Bernard does not want to participate in endless distractions, such as Obstacle Golf, centrifugal bumble-puppy, escalator squash and Riemann-surface tennis. However, her one fault is she is getting bored with relentless promiscuity. He is infatuated with Lenina, a Beta who is suitably consumeristic. He is a sleep-learning specialist and sees through hypnopaedic phrases such as “ Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today.” (Sounds familiar. Aldous Huxley, Brave New WorldĮnter Bernard, an Alpha whose smaller-than-average stature contributes to his inferiority complex (people gossip that when he was still bottled, someone accidentally poured alcohol in his blood surrogate). The principle of mass production at last applied to biology. Solved by standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, uniform Epsilons. There is a human for every occupation and their intelligence and physical attributes are carefully manipulated to create distinct classes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. He begins in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, a factory where humans are grown and conditioned. You need to get past all that before you find the main characters interacting. In fact, the first two chapters (45 minutes of listening) are world-building. Huxley did not imagine climate change and environmental disasters in his bleak future. The Rain Bomb caused significant flooding and kept us locked on our ring road island for over a week. The Pocket Bookclub discussed this book on a night when the rain verged on apocalyptic.
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